If you don't know anybody in the film industry, breaking into Hollywood might seem like an impossible feat. Oh, but you'd be mistaken! In fact, we chatted with Joe Russo, screenwriter of The Inheritance, Soul Mates, and The Au Pair Nightmare, about the journey he took to become a professional writer, director, and producer. (Hint: it didn't include having Hollywood connections or living in Los Angeles.)
Check out our interview below!
Final Draft: How did your career get started?
Joe Russo: As someone who didn’t have a single contact in Hollywood, my career as a screenwriter got started in the most roundabout way possible:
Production and Development.
I worked in Arizona for nearly four years on various productions, from Universal’s The Kingdom and Fox’s American Idol, down to the Lionsgate/AfterDark indie horror movie, The Graves.
When Arizona brilliantly killed the state's production incentive, all the gig work was scattered to different parts of the country. I could’ve followed and kept working on set, but I knew that if I wanted to chase writing and directing, I’d need to move to California.
I convinced my wife to let me use the money I’d saved to get an internship in Los Angeles – but I’d have to drive back-and-forth every week until I found a steady job that let her move out too.
Luckily, I had just directed two short films and they were making the film festival rounds. I got a chance meeting with the CEO of the production company I was interning with – one of the producers of X-Men and Wild, Wild West — and he offered me a job. He said, “You have the talent and the entrepreneurial spirit, but you don’t know anyone and you don’t know how the industry works. You should come work for me.”
That’s how I fell into development for the next seven years — working my way up from Assistant to Director of Development — at Level 1 Entertainment and then Christina Aguilera’s MX Productions.
Those jobs really let me get my foot in the door.
FD: When did you start writing?
JR: During film school, I wrote short films, but they were always a means to an end: Directing.
In 2008, right as the recession hit, an investment company looking to diversify its portfolio offered me the chance to direct a movie for them. It kicked my butt in gear and I co-wrote my first feature-length screenplay with my now writing partner, Chris LaMont.
With the economy collapsing, that script, predictably, never was produced, but it at least forced me through the “first-screenplay jitters” that a lot of writers get trapped in where they constantly second-guess themselves.
Once I got to Los Angeles, Chris and I would write whenever I could squeeze it in around my job working in development.
In 2014, we set up our first project with Will Smith’s production company, Overbrook, and that was really the spark that pushed me into writing not just to direct, but screenwriting full-time.
FD: Do you have a writing process?
JR: For me, writing starts with ideation. I need to be able to see the movie before I jump into Final Draft (how’s that for product placement?).
Once we land on a thematic idea we want to explore and identify a character who can be tested by that theme, Chris and I spend a lot of time outlining. I want to have a solid roadmap of the story, but not too detailed so that there’s still enough room to get creative in-draft because that’s really where a screenplay can come to life.
From there, Chris and I trade pages back and forth until we have a rough draft. Then, we get on Zoom and revise using screen-share, going through line-by-line, word-by-word and, sometimes, even hyphen-by-hyphen, until we have a first draft we’re both happy with.
After that, we share it with close friends and our reps and start revising until it’s market-ready.
FD: How has your writing changed over time?
JR: When Chris and I were just getting started, we tried to take on EVERY idea that was thrown at us by producers. Over time, we’ve become much choosier about which ideas we engage in. It sounds counterintuitive, but it actually generates better opportunities if we stop to make sure we have a fresh take on the concept and – most importantly – we have something we want to say with the project.
The other big change is time spent in-draft. I used to be in such a race to get a script done, I’d go on writing benders. Sometimes the job still calls for that, but if I have the time, I much prefer to jam out three to five pages per day. That prevents me from getting burnt out and it gives me time to brainstorm what to write the next day, so I return to the keyboard fresh and filled with ideas.
FD: What do you think was the most pivotal moment in your writing career?
JR: In 2016, when I was working at Christina Aguilera’s production company, her fiance and producing partner, Matt Rutler, and I went to a meeting at Lionsgate, where our studio deal was based.
While we were there, we bumped into Matt and Christina’s neighbor, the producer of the Saw franchise, Mark Burg.
After a cordial chat, Matt said he wished he had something Saw-like to give Mark to produce. I told him the timing was funny. Chris and I had JUST written a Saw-meets-online-dating horror screenplay called Soul Mates that The Gersh Agency had signed us off of.
Matt immediately turned around and called out to Mark across the lobby, “I have a great screenplay I wanna send you.” Mark said he was excited to read it and Matt turned back to me and warned, “It better be good.”
It must’ve been, because Mark Burg immediately engaged on the project with us, but it wasn’t until the screenplay landed on The BloodList – a now-defunct annual list that chronicled the best horror screenplays of the year – that he snatched it up under option.
The combination of making The BloodList and selling our first screenplay really was the turning point in our careers and helped solidify my pivot from development executive to screenwriter.
FD: What is your favorite thing that you’ve written?
JR: Isn’t the adage that the last thing you’ve written is usually the favorite thing you’ve written? I feel like my writing keeps getting better with every script, so I certainly feel that way. As of this interview, the last five scripts I’ve written are all actively in development with producers or talent attached, so those are certainly the most exciting to me right now, BUT…
If I had to pick amongst my produced films, as close as Soul Mates and The Inheritance came to our original BloodList specs, I still think my directorial debut, The Au Pair Nightmare, is still my favorite of the bunch. That’s the beauty of directing what you wrote – it will always be closest to your original vision.
FD: What is your favorite thing that someone else has written?
JR: When I was still a development executive in 2012, we were working on a really exciting sci-fi project with a brilliant writer – it was sort of Silence of the Lambs with an alien. When the BloodList dropped, I read a logline for a screenplay by Eric Heisserer called The Story of Your Life. It sounded frighteningly similar, so much so that my boss had me track the script down and disseminate it amongst our producing team to read. I was absolutely blown away. It was hands down the best screenplay I’d read. Still might be.
I remember walking into my boss’ office to tell him what I thought. He was so mad. He made all sorts of wild claims about why The Story of Your Life would never get made. I told him I didn’t agree, and, even though it essentially killed our project, it was very gratifying to watch Eric’s screenplay become one of the 2010s best science fiction movies, Arrival.
FD: Do you have any advice for someone looking to break into screenwriting?
JR: A few years ago, I wrote an article for another screenwriting website (we’ll make readers Google which one…) called ‘Your First Screenplay Won’t Get Made… and That’s a Good Thing’ and I still think that’s the best advice I can give new writers.
I mentioned earlier the “first-screenplay jitters”. It’s basically the endless rewriting new writers put their first-ever script through because they think it’s only a win if it gets made, but in reality, it can be such a waste of time.
Unless you’re an exception – and with a learned craft like screenwriting, you’re probably not – your first screenplay is going to suck. I know mine did and, honestly, I’m glad that it never got made.
Writing your first screenplay is an accomplishment. Writing the second and third one is where you’re going to start to develop your skills. Do that.
FD: Do you have a preferred writing snack?
JR: This answer is going to be disappointing, but I’m not much of a snacker, so I don't really have a preferred “writing snack”.
I am, however, a well-documented pizza addict, and my Instagram is FILLED with photos of ‘Za. But I’m not sure that’s a good writing snack… Pizza and laptops don’t really mix.